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  • Peggy & Art Howe Award

How it works:

Timeline

  • Aug 17th: Nominations Open
  • Oct 1st: Nominations Deadline
  • Oct 3rd: Submissions are sent to the Selection Committee
  • Oct 17th: Selection Committee to submit top candidate(s)
  • Oct 28th: Announcement of the winners during the World Congress

Award criteria

Given the role Peggy and Art had in fostering diversity and inclusion, and the way in which they supported each other working towards the same goals, the criteria for selection will mirror their example,
recognizing:

  • Promotion of diversity and inclusion
  • Support of and collaboration towards advancing AFS’s mission

Please note that the anecdotes from Peggy’s and Art’s lives are examples, but there are many different ways of interpreting “diversity” and “inclusion”. Tell us about how your favorite Family of Volunteers promotes these causes “their way”.

 

Selection Committee

  • Beth Lowenstein, granddaughter of Peggy and Art Howe
  • Elisabeth Hardt, member of the Board of Trustees
  • Meredith Howe, granddaughter of Peggy and Art Howe
  • Nicole Milano, Head Archivist and Historical Publications Editor at AFS International
  • Maria Teresa Basualdo, volunteer at AFS Argentina y Uruguay

What do winners receive?

Winners will receive an engraved plate and certificate honoring their exceptional contribution to AFS worldwide in front of our global community.

 

Families are at the heart of AFS. Indeed, it is quite common to see multiple members of a family actively volunteering for the organization and sharing the #AFSeffect. With this Award, we want to honor our Families of Volunteers while remembering Peggy and Art Howe, an exceptional couple who remarkably advanced the mission and goals of AFS both within the organization and in society at large.

Art Howe, long-time champion of AFS, began as an ambulance driver, served as President and as a Life Trustee. Peggy, Art Howe’s wife, has served as chapter volunteer, volunteer coordinator at the AFS headquarters and also a key support and behind-the-scenes facilitator helping her husband achieve what he did as President. Art and Peggy have on different occasions supported and collaborated with each other in their effort to foster diversity and inclusion.

During Art’s presidency, he “organized the multinational programs to allow any AFS country to operate both sending and hosting activity, when previously all program activity operated to and from the U.S. only” (Janus, Spring 2011 Issue), thus making the organization less centralized and more balanced. With the same purpose, he shifted AFS's governance from only World Wars’ volunteers to a more diverse and inclusive Board of Trustees. He advocated to place women and non US Americans into positions of responsibility within the organization.
Outside of AFS, the Howe family was always serving and honoring AFS’s mission. Together, they volunteered in the South and Midwest of the United States to build low-income housing through Habitat for Humanity. As a Dean of Faculty at Yale University, Art advocated for the inclusion of women in the undergraduate programs. He started a Yale summer school program for academically promising high school students from poor backgrounds. In his son Tom’s words, Art was “fighting a lifelong battle against racism”.

Above are only few of the many examples illustrating Peggy and Art Howe actively building a more inclusive organization and society. With this Award, we want to honor their memory and celebrate those Families of Volunteers who work together to promote diversity and inclusion.